Dragonborn

Terra Mystica

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I t was only a few years ago that there was only one window in which to release an extremely

high-profile, triple-A “killer-app” video game. You know, the kind of game that is not sim-ply a game, but one of the games com-ing out that year. The kind that sells consoles and gets the “mainstream” oc-casional gamer back on the couch. They always came out during the fall and more often than not were spe-cifically released in November dur-ing the rush of holiday shopping. In a way, this made sense. Video games grew out of the toy industry, and toy companies make most of their money during the lucrative holiday quarter when moms and dads every-where were busy splurging money for goodies for their kids. By 2007 the video game industry had long grown out of the shadow of toys; at the same time, they had already been firmly established as an enter-tainment medium that wasn’t just for kids, but also had something to offer to adults. Despite this, the fall quarter–and especially the month of November–remained the Holy Grail of video game launch win-dows. If your game mattered more than any other game that year, you were launching in November.

Despite huge competition from games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the biggest name on the calendar in the fall of 2007 was Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft

Auto IV, the high-definition debut of the franchise that massacred most industry sales records during the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era. Then, something incredible happened;

GTA IV was delayed and its release pushed into the sec-ond quarter of 2008 (specifically April). It was somewhat un-heard of at the time;

surely Rockstar was better off hold-ing their chips for the 2008 holiday season rather than releasing in the middle of spring, right?

Well, that April release date didn’t appear to have much nega-tive effect on GTA IV‘s sales, which gave publishers an epiphany: they could skip the claustrophobic, high-ly-competitive fall window and sim-ply launch their big-name title in Q1 or Q2 when there would be decid-edly less competition for advertising atten-tion, gaming time, and gamers’ increasingly limited funds in an in-creasingly expensive hobby. Gaming was now big enough that launching in January or March or May no longer meant getting lost in the pop culture shuffle. Red Dead Redemp-tion and L.A. Noire both re-leased in the month of May and this year’s Max Payne 3 continued that trend.

Grand Theft Auto Should Steal JulyJuly is the next goldmine.

Rockstar can once again be an industry

trend-setter.

Grand Theft Auto 5 6

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Dragonborn 15

Terra Mystica 20

DmC 16

MTG - Gatecrasher

Star Wars: X-wing

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The Cave 17

Legends of Andor

Mage Knight

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Sir Hammerlocks Big Game HuntFire Emblem Awakening

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Elder Scrolls Online

D&D Next

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Set 1000 years before the events of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,

The Elder Scrolls Online will span most of the continent of Tam-riel, which includes more famous provinces like Skyrim, Cyrodiil and Morrowind. You’ll be able to take on standard quests, dive into public dungeons combat system at the level cap for control of the Emperor’s throne in Cyrodiil.

Starting off, you’ll choose to play as one of three factions,

each comprised of three of The Elder Scrolls’ species. The Nords, Dark Elves and Argonians form the Ebonheart Pact, the High Elves, Wood Elves and Khajiit are bound together as the Aldmeri Dominion,

and The Dagger-fall Covenant in-cludes the Bret-ons, Redguard and Orcs. Each faction will have unique questing content, so if you decide to replay

as a different faction, you won’t have to complete the exact same set of tasks all over again.

The game will be class-based, so you can’t just jump in and start developing your character how-ever you want like you can in Sky-

rim. ZeniMax Online isn’t reveal-ing the exact classes yet, but from the sounds of things there’ll be a rogue-type class, a healer, a dam-age-focused caster, an archer and a fighter, all of which fit to some degree into the traditional healer / tank / damage-per-second cat-egories of traditional MMOs, but ZeniMax Online stresses that though healing is a big part of the game, you won’t necessarily need a dedicated healer to clear all group content.

Outside of combat you’ll be able to tweak your skill bar, which determines your available abilities. Two of the skill slots will change depending on your equipped weapon, you can add in a few class-specific skills, and the final skill slot is an ultimate. Triggering your ultimate requires a certain reserve of finesse, which builds as you accomplish special tasks in battle. By working together with friendly players you can create skill combos, where a mage class can light an oil slick laid down by a rogue class on fire, or a fighter class can apparently spin kick fireballs from within a carpet of flame laid down by a mage. You can also per-form special actions like interrupt-ing casted spells or using shields,

Elder Scrolls OnlineThe MMO we have all waited for.

PREVIEW

Developer - ZeniMax Online StudiosPublisher - Bethesda SoftworksDirector - Matt FirorSeries - The Elder ScrollsEngine - CustomPlatforms - Microsoft Windows, Mac OSXRelease date - 2013Genre - Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, open world

Develop yourcharacter

however youwant like you

can in Skyrim.

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Elder Scrolls Online

two-handed weapons or magic to block incoming attacks to build finesse, encouraging you to take advantage of advanced combat actions whenever possible.

For questing, ZeniMax On-line will make use of phasing like in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, where the world around you will change after completing certain quest objectives. There will be plenty to explore across Tamriel, encouraging you to search with-out specific quest goals and dis-cover hidden caves and rewards. That being said, there will still be plenty of structured content, in-cluding instanced dungeons as well as public dungeons, which will feature similar content but can be accessed by anyone.

For end game content you’ll get heroic versions of instanced dungeons, raids, as well as an open world player versus player combat system. The three factions will fight for control of terrain surrounding the Imperial City in Cyrodiil. Across the province will be capturable forts, castles and farms, and you can either charge to the front lines of battle or hang back and fire

siege weaponry to bust up the walls of some of the more heav-ily fortified capture points. Once your faction is into the Impe-rial City, you’ll find the streets will be full of enemies, and once the roads are cleared a new emperor will be crowed based on which player contrib-uted most to the war effort. Your faction’s success in Cyrodiil’s PvP areas will confer faction-wide bo-nuses, but being crowned emper-or will simply be for personal pride, and will not reward some god-like temporary power or items.

The familiar guilds of The Elder Scrolls, including the Dark Brother-hood, Fighters Guild, Thieves Guild and Mages Guild, will all be in the game, but ZeniMax Online isn’t talking about all of them quite yet. At least for the Fighters and Mages Guilds you’ll be able to perform tasks in the world to boost reputa-tion and eventually unlock rewards

The world around you will

change after completing

certain questobjectives.

in the form of abilities. As you quest and level you’ll be able to craft items and acquire mounts, but

you won’t be able to own property. ZeniMax Online also mentioned that while werewolves and vampires are in the game, you can’t actual-ly transform into either of those creatures.

While Bethesda Game Studios, the de-veloper of the single-player Elder Scrolls

games, is not creating The Elder Scrolls Online, they are consulting on aspects such as lore accuracy. Aside from that, though, all deci-sions about content creation are being handled within ZeniMax Online Studios.

The Elder Scrolls Online is scheduled to launch some time in 2013 for PC and Mac.

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5 Reasons WhyThe Elder Scrolls Online Will Rule 2013

In The Elder Scrolls Online, play-ers will have a minimal amount

of icons on-screen. You’ll use your small selection of skills on-screen, and level them up by using them. You don’t have to worry about pay-ing a trainer to level up a skill that you might someday, possibly use. You level up what you use, and

Elder Scrolls games are known for being massive, and this game is

incorporating the entire continent of Tamriel, meaning the game will be so big there are no words to de-scribe it. With so many place to vis-it, explore, and adventure through, The Elder Scrolls Online is prepared

Whether you’re interested in your faction’s story, or the

personal story of your character, there is sure to be an amazing show unfolding before your eyes. The Elder Scrolls games have not exactly been lean on the storytell-ing in the past, and there’s no rea-son to believe Zenimax Online Stu-dios will be skimping here either.

You engage in combat in this game much like you engage

in combat in Skyrim – in real time. You click your mouse to use y our weapon, and depending on how well you aimed, you will hit or miss your target. The more suc-cessful you are at attacking, and

whatever else is in that small hot-bar at the time. This is such a great idea, and it’s one that will hopefully going a long way towards keeping players in the game, and not being distracted by what skills they need to put where, and in what order to use them. Just go kill something!

to offer players years of entertain-ment. In fact, the scale of the game is said to be even larger than that of existing games, meaning as big as Skyrim is in its current form, it will be even bigger online.

Whether it’s enjoying whatever road you take in your quest to get back your soul (which we know is stolen from you at the beginning), or just filling your days with “side quests” and exploring the wilder-ness, you’ll be able to make your character truly your own, and un-like any other in the game.

even dodging attacks, you will build up “finesse” points, which you’ll be able to apply to a power move of sorts. Once you deliver this killer blow, you can begin refilling your finesse points and use the move again.

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5) The User Interface

4) Massive World

3) The Story

2) The Combat

Last but not least, it wouldn’t be an Elder Scrolls game if you

couldn’t play the game the way you wanted. You want to take a race that is predominantly known for being an archer and turning him into a two-handed sword war-rior? Go ahead! Maybe you start the game as a sword and board kinda guy, but decide you’d rather switch to archery. Don’t worry about find-ing someone who will do a skill re-speck for you, just switch! The way

the leveling system in this game is designed, any player can use any weapon at any time, so there’s no reason to get rid of the epic axe you just found, even if you think you probably can’t use it. In this game, you can.

Additionally, you don’t have to follow linear quest paths to make progress in the game. Maybe you don’t even want to quest at all? That’s ok! Just head off on an ad-venture all your own, hunting

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1) The Freedom

wildlife, bandits, and who knows what else. You can spend your time in-game any way you want, and you’re not punished for doing so. You’ll still be able to level, you’ll still be able to PvP, and you’ll still be able to hop in with your friends at any time as well. This game will not restrict you in that sense, and players will be wise to spend some time on their own, just seeing what Tamriel has to offer.

There is almost too much to take in - that’s the overriding

response. GTA V is a game about three disparate career criminals taking on a series of heists in Los Santos. It is a game where you can switch at will between the three leads, you can go anywhere, seem-ingly do anything.

For the last month, gamers ev-erywhere have been rifling through the available informa-tion, constructing for themselves what they hope the end result will be. Can a sin-gle title bear this much weight of expectations?

It can if it thinks about design in a new way. And that’s what we reckon the latest GTA does. There’s a chance this thing will hint at the coming era of inter-active entertainment. There’s a chance GTA V will be the first real next-generation game.

Big Country

It is there in the sheer scale of the environment, of course. We’ve all heard the high con-

cept pitch: GTA V is big enough to swallow GTA: San Andreas, GTA IV and Red

Dead Redemption whole. But the key isn’t the size, it’s the variety and detail. Los Santos itself has become a sprawl of neighbor-hoods, with the luxurious Rock-ford Hills leading into the dense downtown area, and on to the sun-baked Santa Maria beach,

with its muscle men, beach babes and as-sorted weirdos.

Then the map extends outwards, taking in the diverse Southern Califor-

nian countryside; the mountains, the deserts, the weird Salton City, mostly abandoned in the 70s and a suitably messed up home for the game’s most psychotic character, Trevor.

It’s all explorable from the outset, and Rockstar North has learned a vital lesson from Red Dead Redemption; that an envi-ronment only works when it feels alive. Indeed, producer Leslie Ben-zie recently said: “We had a lot of the North team working on RDR and LA Noire, which allowed us to gain experience of other projects and how to solve problems and use them within the new game en-gine we’ve created for V.”

“GTA V will tell us about how game stories are going to be told in the future”

Grand Theft Auto VBack to the west coast

Developer(s) - Rockstar NorthPublisher(s) - Rockstar GamesDistributor(s) - Take-Two InteractiveWriter(s) - Dan HouserEngine - RAGE EuphoriaPlatform - PlayStation 3 Xbox 360Release date - Q2 2013Genre(s) - Action-adventure, open worldMode(s) - Single-player,

multiplayer

The key isn’tthe size,

it’s the varietyand detail.

PREVIEW

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Hence, it seems that both the ecosystem and the dynamic mission encounters have been bought over and evolved from that game. Players will encounter stranded motorists, hitchhikers and redneck misfits, spawning new side-quests on the fly.

Open world games have al-ways hinted in this direction, but populating large worlds with fun things is going to be a key concern in the next-gen era. As gamers demand ever larger environ-ments, developers will begin to rely upon procedural generated landscapes, in which maps are effectively designed by the computer, based on parameters and algorithms set by the coders and artists.

These places will need to be filled with smart AIs capable of reacting to player behaviors and generating insta-missions, without someone on the dev team having to write a script first.

Three Two One

On top of that, it looks very much as though GTA V is go-

ing to tell us about how game stories will be told in the future. Forget about one linear strand taking us through from begin-ning to middle to end. GTA V has three protagonists remember - re-

tired bank robber, Michael, drug-addled psycho Trevor and young repo kid, Franklin - and their sto-ries will intertwine as we progress.

“Here we have three protago-nists interacting throughout the game,” Benzies told IGN. “This is something we touched upon with the intersecting stories of Nico, Johnny and Luis in GTA IV, but we

have now made this integral to the structure of the gameplay as well as the narrative.”

More inter-estingly, you’re able to swap be-

tween these wise guys when you like, zooming out of one, into a sort of Google Maps view, then into another, taking up their story wherever they are. In this way, each player is going to effectively edit their own story, catching bits and pieces of the cut-scene action, becoming film-makers. Benzies has said that the way each gam-er makes these “tactical and or-ganic choices” will really shape the game.

That’s true in missions too; each characters has his own friends, his own skills - major tasks will usually

You will be ableto swap betweenthese wise guys when you like.

involve at least two of them tak-ing on different roles. In the raid on the government building that The Guardian was shown, Michael does the action, while Trevor flies the chopper and Franklin covers with a sniper rifle.

Weapons, like vehicles, will all be in the world from the start, but players will need cash and the right connections to build their arsenal and access the meatier stuff. This is a game about money - everything is for sale.

We’ll also see how secondary characters react differently to the main protagonists: what happens when Trevor or Franklin stumble into Michael’s mansion-lined district? Dan Houser says the sto-

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ry is really going to play on these fish-out-of water scenarios. It’s also clear that the relationship be-tween the three hoods is going to be central to the action.

GTA IV got you to hang out with a whole roster of gangland scumbags. Here, it seems to be about this central threesome, al-though Michael has a wife and kids, and it looks like these will be providing the comic relief Charac-ter is the focus, not plot.

Deep Heat

Indeed, the whole sense of linear-ity is being broken down. GTA

V doesn’t build toward a single climax, it is structured around a

series of major heists, with sub-missions leading up to and feeding off them.

You get the feeling that while Vice City looked toward the dot-to-dot hyper-violence of Scarface and Mi-ami Vice, GTA V is much more like Michael Mann’s Heat, a deeper, more nuanced experience - but with a whole bunch of shooting thrown in for good measure.

And here’s an important thing; while Niko’s story was about killing, GTA V is about cash, about greed and adrenaline, and that changes the tone and the mission design. Speak-ing to IGN, Dan Houser said these guys are focused much more on money and robbery.

“They can do the robberies in different kinds of ways and have a lot of choice over the things they do.” Again, this is a glimpse at how game design is likely to mature, tak-ing us away from the sign posted corridors of Uncharted and on from the more thoughtful arenas of Dis-honored and Far Cry 3.

Verticality also seems to be much more important in this game. You’ve always been able to access rooftops and clamber up hillsides in GTA, but now, perhaps inspired by upstarts like Batman and Assassin’s Creed, GTA V is more subtly layered than its predecessors.

The mission press have seen in-volves Michael being lowered from a chopper and rappelling down the side of a skyscraper for a raid on a government agency. And then

we also have a mountain range, miles of sky to fly through and an explorable

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ocean. Will there be a submarine mission? It’s unlikely Rockstar would have modelled the sea floor just so players could go scu-ba diving if they felt like it.

“While Niko’s story was about killing, GTA V is about cash”

Space Exploration

But then, doing things when you feel like it is a vital element of

the GTA experience, and Rockstar knows it. Here you’ll be able to play golf and tennis, ride quad-bikes, do a triathlon. Explore, live. “Games are very geographical,” said Hous-er to The Guardian.

“They present space almost better than they present time, and we try to use that, to showcase variety between different land-scapes. It’s this idea of a digital holiday: being able to explore spaces that don’t really exist is one of the things that’s fascinating about open world games. It’s not just about doing the activities we’ve set, there’s also a sense of being there”.

Quite possibly, hidden among all this talk about freedom are some subtle clues about the online modes in GTA V. With Red Dead, Rockstar introduced its concept

of Free Roam multi-player where players could get together in gangs and explore the whole en-vironment. GTA V will surely build on this. It’s almost certain we’ll see co-op heists, maybe against other players as security guards.

We’re sure there will be ele-ments of EA’s Auto- and Battle log social systems, allowing players to make connections be-tween each other’s game worlds. But the big things are likely to be persistence and scope.

Next-gen games may move on from the limited Team Death-match format of current online modes; GTA V might suggest that, allowing small squads of players to engage in longer form quests and narrative adventures. Houser hinted at some-

thing in his Guard-ian profile: “This game, if we get it right, will be a step toward some kind of organic living soap opera.” Per-haps that ambition will inform multi-player too.

The next generation of gam-ing will be less about formula and structure and more about free-dom and personalization. GTA

Phil Collins did voice work for Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto has been sued for nearly $1 billion

Grand Theft Auto games offer more than 200 side missions

V is not there, of course, it’s still sitting in this generation - even though its very possible that, as at least a new Xbox is due at the end of 2013, an updated edition may well be released.

Even if it isn’t, with its em-phasis on multiple characters, a less linear story, and a freer en-vironment, it has things to say about the future. And what it says is this: the future of game design isn’t about us, it’s about you.

This game, if we get it right, will be a step toward

some kind of organic living soap opera.

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PREVIEWD&D NextLegends & Lore

A new year is a good time to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re going. To begin,

I’d like to walk you through the basic goals of D&D Next. Starting with this column and continuing on through the next few installments, I’ll cast a light on the goals behind our work.

> To start with, here are our two guiding principles. These ideas guide everything we do.> Create a version of D&D that embraces the enduring, core elements of the game.> Create a set of rules that allows a smooth transition from a simple game to a complex one.> So what do these mean in detail?

Well, read on.

The Core Elementsof D&D

Over the years, the D&D tabletop RPG has un-dergone several dramatic revisions. The rules

for the game today look very little like the game of 6 years ago, or the game of 15 years ago, or the

game of 25 years ago. That’s an outlier in the world of tabletop games. Although plenty of games intro-duce new content, such as a new set of cards for a TCG or a new unit for a miniatures game, few games rebuild their core rules from the ground up.

Changing the rules of a game in a fundamental way creates rifts within your community. There are the obvious gaps between people who play a new version and those who stick with the old one, but there are more subtle issues at work. Someone who stopped playing your game 10 years ago and wants back into it must start over from scratch. Why go back to a fa-miliar game if you find out that it isn’t really familiar anymore?

D&D Next must provide a home for the

variety of play styles supported across the

history of D&D.

So, the first big picture goal is to make a version of D&D that speaks to the recognizable elements of the game. Anyone who played D&D in the past, even decades ago, should be able to step into D&D Next with ease. D&D Next must provide a home for the variety of play styles supported across the history of D&D, with rules terms and procedures that D&D players recognize and understand. What that actually means will be covered in part two, but the design implication is that D&D Next should deliver the primary strengths that each edition brings to the table. If an edition was good at something, D&D Next needs to do a good job of providing it.

Smooth Transitions

To talk about D&D and complexity, we have to start by thinking about new players. Do a lot of

new people try D&D every year? Yes. In fact it at-tracts far more people than you would guess. The real strength of D&D has always been in its ability to pull in new players. But what we noticed starting a few years back is that even though people were seeking the introductory product, fewer and fewer players were moving deeper into additional materi-al such as the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual.

Back in the early 1980s, the game rules were ac-cessible and play was supported with a lot of adven-tures. Since then, the game has become increasingly complex. New editions have added more rules, more options, and more detail. Even if one area of the game became simpler, another area became far more diffi-cult to grasp. We need to reverse that trend and make a version of D&D that new players can pick up with ease and that existing players can continue to play by utilizing a wealth of world-class adventure content.

This brings us to the second big picture goal. We’re going to make an RPG product called Dun-geons & Dragons. It will be the game, Dungeons & Dragons, not just a sampler or a game that guides

you through making a character and playing a single ad-venture. You can buy D&D and play a full, tabletop RPG

campaign. You will be able to start playing, regardless of experience, and will easily find other products to migrate to if you so desire.

For the established D&D play-ers out there, this is where modu-larity comes in. To create a con-tinuum of options and complexity, we need to make a game that has

a simple, robust core that is easy to expand in a variety of directions. We can’t change the core game to accom-modate those later options, whether they’re new classes or detailed rules for climbing. The core must remain un-changed as you add more rules. If we achieve that, we can give new players a complete game and then add ad-ditional layers of options and complexity to cater to more experienced gamers.

The Basic Rules

The basic rules rep-resent the starting

point for the game. The ba-sic rules cover the absolute core of the game. They capture the strengths of basic D&D. These rules form a com-plete game, but they don’t give much detail beyond the rules needed to run dungeon exploration. Characters are created by rolling ability scores (though we have discussed the possibility that your class gives you an array that your race then modifies), picking a race, and picking a class. Skills aren’t part of the game, but we’ve dis-cussed integrating skill dice into the classes (fighters get their

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skill dice on all Strength checks, wizards on all Intel-ligence ones, and so forth) to support improvisation and the use of checks. Each class has a default spe-cialty, and its benefits are presented as class features. The specialties are simple but effective, such as bo-nus hit points or spells.

You can think of the basic rules as supporting an AD&D approach to characters—race and class as choices, though without multi classing—combined with basic D&D’s approach to the core game rules.

The current choices that are present in the game—deity for a cleric, tradition for wizard, and so on—won’t appear here. The options built into characters will reflect the iconic D&D expression of the classes. Clerics will turn undead, wield maces, wear heavy armor, and heal characters. Wizards will t h r o w fireball and magic missile. Fighters will

wear heavy armor and wield the best weapons. Rogues will be sneaky, good with traps, capable of climb-

ing walls, good at backstabbing o r sneak attacks, and

otherwise tal-ented with

the classic rogue abili-ties. This is where

it is critical that new and

returning play-ers see the races

and classes in their most iconic form.

The key strengths of the basic rules are

that they make the game easy to pick

up and play, with fast character creation and classes that default to

simple but effective op-tions. Like basic D&D,

the rules are more free-form, with DMs encour-aged to use the core mechanics to adjudicate

corner cases as they come up.The basic rules will succeed if they support

the key concepts of an RPG, namely that you can try anything and that there are no bounds to what is possible. Like basic D&D, the focus rests on the core concept of an RPG, rather than exhaustive rules or character options.

Even better, people who don’t care for complex rules, or the new layer you’re introducing to your cam-paign regardless of the rules you’re using, can create a character using these rules with a minimum of fuss.

The Standard Rules

The standard rules represent the next step up in terms of complexity and options. You can think

of them as a combination of 3rd Edition’s character creation and 4th Edition’s approach to DMing, with flexibility brought to the forefront for players and rugged extensibility for DMs. We’re also adding ele-ments to allow for a 2E-with-kits feel (specialties and backgrounds) for players who want to focus more on story in character creation than mechanics.

Characters are built rather than randomly gener-ated, with players aiming to combine a specific set of abilities to craft a customized character. For DMs, the rules provide more depth and a more detailed me-chanical framework for improvising monsters, terrain features, and other mechanical elements of the game.

If in the basic rules a cleric carries a mace and turns undead, a cleric in the standard rules might be a devo-tee of Thor who wields a warhammer and calls down thunderbolts to smite enemies. The characters in the standard game are a more diverse lot, with a focus on options to build unique stories, combinations of abili-ties, and so forth. Most notably, we see multi classing and prestige class rules as part of the standard game. Advancing to 3rd level as a fighter, then grabbing a few levels as a rogue before becoming an executioner of the Dusk Shadow Guild, is a great way to use the game rules to customize your character.

We’ve seen in the past that this freedom can also cause problems, as different players find different parts of character creation rewarding. Some players love to tinker with combinations of abilities to create powerful player characters. For those players, we’ve

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Our aim is to keep a close eye on the

raw number of options available.

built backgrounds and specialties as elements that can be broken down easily into feats and skills. We’re looking to do the same for classes where we can. For players more interested in the narrative, backgrounds and specialties allow them to make interesting choic-es that express a character’s story without sacrificing power or requiring them to master the system. It’s important to remember that people find different ele-ments of D&D enjoyable, and one of our challenges is to ensure that we have few or no barriers in front of what you like about the game.

On top of that, our aim is to keep a close eye on the raw number of options available. Feats and class choices are intended to have a bigger effect on your character, rather than small bonuses that must be combined to really make a PC different. Because of this, we have to work much harder to play test new content and verify that it represents an interesting option. We’re committed to doing that because it en-sures a longer, healthier lifespan for the game.

For DMs, the standard rules represent the next mechanical step from learning how to assign DCs and call for checks. The standard rules will adopt some of 4E’s innovations, such as creating monsters on the fly through a set of standard damage, hit point, and de-fense numbers by level. A DM always needs the abil-ity to improvise, and in the standard rules we add more depth to what you can im-provise comfortably at the table.

In addition, our aim is to produce a set of nonplayer character and monster creation guidelines that meet 4E’s level of complexity and intricacy. A DM running a standard game sees the rules more as a tool to produce specific things he or she needs or wants to do, much in the same way that a player in a standard game pic-tures a character then turns to the rules. In many ways, the standard rules for DMs assume that the DM is in-terested in system tinkering and mechanical creation as an interesting task in itself, where the basic rules place a much bigger focus on stocking a dungeon or wilderness with existing traps and monsters, or creat-ing scenarios using pre-built mechanical elements.

When it comes to core mechanics, the standard rules add more levels of detail. Rules for wres-tling, more specific rules for swimming, and so

on give greater detail and specificity for DMs. The concept here is to let groups settle on the level of rules complexity they want. Each table has its own comfort level for rules vs. rulings, and it’s important that we provide a good base with extensible options in a logical, easy to un-derstand pattern.

We fully expect that groups will mix the basic and standard rules. A DM who prefers to improvise things and make rulings can stick with the basic rules, while players who want more detailed character creation can use the standard rules to build their PCs. A group might prefer to use the standard core rules and their level of detail but with the simple characters of the basic game, but another group might use basic core rules and rely more on DM adjudica-tion for adventures with their highly customized, standard rules characters.

REVIEWS

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Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Dragonborn

Dragonborn is a terrific DLC - perhaps even a better one that Bloodmoon, that it tries to recall. The game now features lots of novelties that - in connection with interesting quests, a big island to explore and dungeons to loot - create an impressive main course. The full potential has not been reached (riding dragons can be uncomfortable and the ending is kind of weak) expansions, Drag-onborn is an excellent DLC and a must have for the fans of the series.

8.5

The Good

The Bad

Awesome new island to explore

Morrowind callbacks

Great new dungeons and puzzles

High-level content and items

Dragon-riding is underwhelming

Story feels rushed

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REVIEW

DmC8.5

Ninja Theory had big boots to fill. But they mastered the reboot of the iconic stylish action series. The fighting system manages the balance between traditional dy-namics and contemporary combo madness. The art design is close to perfect. The narrative though is sometimes losing focus and re-fuses to give the characters room to grow for most of the time. None-theless this is the first big action highlight of the year

No lock-on

Campaign cut short

The Bad

Sick combos

Superb style

Great visuals

The Good16

The Cave

The Cave supports up to three players working together on a single TV, but falls short of letting players split up, so you still have to switch back and forth as puzzles demand characters in different locations. Still, that cooperative vibe echoes the way many play-ers first encountered the genre – a group of friends gathered around a screen, laughing at the crazy solutions required to slip past a perplexing blocked path. In repli-cating that novel experience, The Cave succeeds.

7

Wonky jumping controls

Choppy frame rate

The Bad

Plenty of fun

Clever puzzles

Ample replay ability built-in

Well-defined sense of humor

The Good 17

REVIEW

Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt

In Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt players enter an uncharted territory deep in the swamps of Pandora where a very large Hyper-ion ship has crashed. The wreck-age is believed to have stockpiles of loot. But watch yourself because mutated creatures, and armies of savages also had their interest t piqued by the ship. As ferocious and deadly as they may seem, the mysterious Professor Nakayama claims to be their diabolical leader, and he’s calling all the shots.

Witch doctor makes for some frustrating fights

Story, characters, and humor fall short of Borderlands 2 standard

The Bad

Lots of new enemy types

Enemies have a nice range of abilities

Same rock-solid Borderlands mechanics

The Good

8.5

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Fire Emblem Awakening 9.5

The GoodHighly customizable experience Lovable and memorable characters Beautiful and varied visual style

Those looking for a challenge need look no further than Fire Em-blem: Awakening, and newcomers can enjoy a much more accessible experience via the casual mode. With steady innovations such as the improved sound, relationship system, and online functional-ity, fans can finally rejoice at the series’ return to Nintendo’s newest portable device.

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Terra Mystica8

I like Terra Mystica a great deal, but have been un-able to quite reach the point where I love it. It is an ex-tremely impressive and clearly well designed game. All of the intricate parts work together quite effectively and while I wish more of your time was spent focusing on what other people are doing rather than building your empire, I do not think this will detract from the game’s general success and popularity. In fact I think it will only add to it and make Terra Mystica one of the most suc-cessful and popular releases of 2013.

REVIEW

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7.5MTG - Gatecrash

This set has a great mix of new things to keep you wanting more. There is a really heavy presence of mul-ticolored and hybrid cards. And there is something re-ally cool and powerful for each color set. Not to men-tion, the best Gideon card ever! Definitely worth $100, grab one if you can.

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REVIEW

Legends of Andor8

At the heart of Legends of Andor is its unique nar-rative, the linked scenarios of which tell an overarching story as the players successfully complete objectives. For each scenario, or “Legend”, a legend deck conveys the plot of an ever-unfolding tale...one in which the players are the protagonists. A wooden marker moves along the board’s legend track at key points during each scenario, triggering the draw of a new legend card, the introduc-tion of new game-altering effects, and the advancement of the story’s plot. In the end, the players must endeavor to guide the fate of Andor through their heroic actions.

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Star Wars: X-Wing

Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game is a tactical ship-to-ship combat game in which players take con-trol of powerful Rebel X-wings and nimble Imperial TIE fighters, facing them against each other in fast-paced space combat. Featuring stunningly detailed and painted miniatures, the X-Wing Miniatures Game rec-reates exciting Star Wars space combat throughout its several included scenarios. Select your crew, plan your maneuvers, and complete your mission!

8

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REVIEW

Mage Knight

The Mage Knight board game puts you in control of one of four powerful Mage Knights as you explore (and conquer) a corner of the Mage Knight universe under the control of the Atlantean Empire. Build your army, fill your deck with powerful spells and actions, explore caves and dungeons, and eventually conquer powerful cities con-trolled by this once-great faction! In competitive scenari-os, opposing players may be powerful allies, but only one will be able to claim the land as their own. In cooperative scenarios, the players win or lose as a group. Solo rules are also included.

8

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Violent Games

In 2011, the Supreme Court struck down a California law ban-ning the sale of violent games to minors, saying that games are art and have the same protections un-der the First Amendment as music and movies.

As an avid video game player and previous owner of a local game store. I have seen many children try to buy intensely violent games, but rarely do they try on their own. A majority of the time, the child’s parent will buy the game, without knowing what it contains.

Parents who play games with their children can put in to context what a child sees in a video game.

Parents, not the state or fed-eral government, have the best control over what their children do and see. I do not allow my chil-dren to play any game they want. I have told them what they can play and that is what they play. If they have interest in other games I have not approved I tell them why I feel they cannot play it and they un-derstand. I want them to learned to appreciate games for their cre-ative and artistic qualities as well as their more base aspects. But I do not think they need to have certain things placed into their life they would not normally be involved in at their age.

Vigilant Parents

Children enjoy doing things they are not supposed to do. Video games are no different.

I agree with the Supreme Court when it says games are art. Games such as “Heavy Rain” and “Limbo” have proven the medi-um’s contribution to art. Howev-er, something simply being legal does not mean it is appropriate for everyone.

Children should not be al-lowed to play games that they are not ready for, but the same can be said about music and movies. The best protection a child can have is a vigilant parent.

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